Sep 9, 2020
Users’ Manual and Technical Documentation. Prepared by Xinyu Liu, Hoyoung Kwon, and Michael Wang.
The "User Guide for FD-CIC Tool 2020" provides comprehensive instructions and technical documentation for the Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator (FD-CIC), developed by Argonne National Laboratory. The FD-CIC is designed to assess the carbon intensity (CI) of biofuels, focusing specifically on the feedstock production stage. It incorporates life cycle analysis (LCA) techniques to account for energy/material use and emissions throughout the biofuel supply chain, including feedstock production and fuel conversion stages.
The FD-CIC's system boundary covers cradle-to-farm-gate activities, including upstream emissions related to farming input manufacturing and feedstock production. The tool allows stakeholders to assess the effects of varying farm-level input parameters on corn CI scores in the biofuel LCA context. Key parameters affecting biofuel feedstock CI include corn yield, fertilizers/chemicals application rates, and agronomic practices.
The guide details the different worksheets within the FD-CIC tool, such as the Introduction worksheet, Inputs worksheet, and Results worksheet, explaining how to input data and interpret results. It emphasizes the importance of considering soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in CI calculations. The FD-CIC provides lookup tables for SOC sequestration potentials corresponding to different farming practices, and it translates feedstock CI into ethanol CI.
Two versions of the FD-CIC are available: a dynamic version that interacts with the GREET model for more detailed analysis, and a standalone version for users less familiar with GREET. The tool calculates emissions of CO2, CH4, and N2O, considering their global warming potentials, and it also includes complex calculations for fertilizers that serve as multiple nutrient sources.
Overall, the FD-CIC tool is a vital resource for accurately measuring the GHG benefits of sustainable agronomic practices and for advancing the development of low-carbon intensity feedstocks for biofuel production.
Read the guide here: